Holden Retirees Club

Dandenong Plant (Melbourne)

1956 -1997   

 The need for the Dandenong Plant arose from the pressures of ever expanding volume forecasts for Holden vehicles and the widening of the model range to satisfy both local and export markets.

On 29^th August, 1951, the Dandenong Journal ran a banner headline: “General Motors reported to be coming to Dandenong; 130 acre site on Berwick Rd mentioned”, quoting persistent rumours that GMH had bought Foy’s property next to the proposed Heinz factory and close to the new International Harvester Plant.

The next day, the Managing Director of GMH, Harold Bettle, announced that they had bought 150 acres “for long term future requirements”, as the activities at Fishermens Bend had used all available land there.

Whilst the news was generally welcomed, the Dandenong Council expressed concern about this valuable residential land being used for commercial development, and while the factory was actually in the Berwick Council’s area, no doubt Dandenong Council would be expected to supply amenities given the proximity to Dandenong township. And if they did, it would reasonable that they should control the area.

These concerns turned out to be reasonable, as on 27 April 1954, The Argus reported that the “Pace Was Really On at Dandenong”, with land there worth more than in Swanston Street and including those being built, approximately 200 factories in the Shire.

On 27^th April 1954, it was reported that GMH were to build a factory covering 12 acres and costing £2,840,000, that plans were almost complete and work would commence within a few weeks. But it was not until 1^st March, 1955 that the Victorian Premier, Mr John Cain, poured the first load of cement to start construction.

Planning for the Dandenong Plant had commenced with overseas visits by G.M.H. personnel to study the latest assembly practices and finality was reached with the Detroit office on the detailed layout of the new plant during a second overseas trip in May 1955.

Meanwhile construction was proceeding at Dandenong and with the layout now sealed, equipment installation proceeded apace enabling production to commence the following year. 

 The first stage of the assembly plant produced its first vehicle, an FE Holden, on September 19, 1956. The plant at that stage covered 12 acres and its completion enabled all Victorian Assembly to be transferred from Fishermen's Bend Plant No. 1.

Main Departments included body welding, metal finishing, paint shop, trim and upholstery, body wiring and vehicle assembly. The National parts centre (then known as NASCO), was also built at Dandenong at a cost of $3,084,000 and housed at that time 33,763 different items.

Later arrivals in 1957 included Frigidaire which manufactured household appliances and the Administration Building which included the Medical Centre and the completed canteen which seated 1480 people.

In addition the Detroit Diesel Allison International Division looked after General Motors interest in the heavy transport field.

The Out of Production Spares Plant (Plant 7) was constructed in 1964 to initially provide parts for NASCO but later became a specialist manufacture for items such as brake cylinders, torque converters and heater cores.

Dandenong also became the Australian Data Processing Centre for the Company. Relocation commenced in 1960 and the Data Processing Centre operated one of the largest commercial computer operations in the country. When GM bought Electronic Data Service in 1984, the DP department became part of EDS.

Frigidaire was subsequently transferred to New Zealand in 1970 and the plant was re-purposed to build Bedford and Chevrolet Trucks.

The original design capacity for Dandenong Assembly was 20 bodies and 24 vehicles per hour, but these limits were consistently exceeded as time went on. Two subsequent expansions provided space for later models and lifted body building capacity to 30 per hour.

In June 1973, prolonged industrial problems in the Elizabeth Plant caused GMH to announce that all Assembly would be closed there, and the Torana volume transferred to Dandenong.  In the event, Elizabeth was not closed down, but the Torana volume stayed at Dandenong plant who became the sole supplier.

By the early 1980's, more than four million cars had been produced there.

With the 1986 UAAI Joint Venture agreement, the Plant was seen to be redundant to new model sharing requirements and GMH had the premises valued for sale as at 30^th June 1988, at $19,100,000.

However, TMC had been considering the build of a new plant in Melbourne for some years, but decided it would be useful for them in the near term to instead lease the Dandenong factory to expand the volume of Corolla and the rebadged Holden Nova. A Heads of Agreement was signed in mid-1988, and the transition commenced with TMCA formally taking control in November 1988. A $25 million major refit was started over Christmas, and TMCA announced in February 1989 that it would result in the creation of 500 new jobs, especially for tradesman. The first Corolla was produced in March 1989, and the Official Opening of the renewed plant was on 11^th April 1989.

The Toyota Corolla/Holden Nova was the last vehicle to be built at Dandenong.

Production of the Corolla was transferred to Toyota’s new Altona Plant in September 1994, and the property returned to GMH in 1996.

 In 1997 GMH sold the Dandenong plant site on Princes Highway to Phileo Australia for $22.5 million. They retained only the area around the GM Parts and Accessories Warehouse.  After re-purposing the property into an industrial park, and constructing some buildings, Phileo Australia on-sold it to Cbus for $136.5 million ten years later.

The former General Motors train station – which GMH paid to construct in 1956, but which closed in 2004, still stands at the bottom of Assembly Drive but in a rather dilapidated condition.

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